June 9, 2010
Night 10 - Day 11: Night touring? Stealth Camping? What?
OK, so I owe you a couple of days. It's not that I haven't WANTed to update things but there have been issues... WIFI availability, time, energy... So, I owe you. But it will have to wait, because last night was an epic adventure that you must read about now!
It started like this...
We arrived in Baker yesterday afternoon and, after hooking up with Isaiah and Rocky (who we've been, more or less, riding with since Middlegate) and Steve and Tyler, who we met on the front porch of the little restaurant in Baker, we were sitting around at dinner in the Silver Jack Motel and Restaurant, that place that lets you camp in the back yard if you buy a meal... We had a great meal and nice chat, partly about how hard the day had been, particularly over Sacramento Pass, not just because of the pass, but because of the heat and headwinds.
We had finished eating and I was trying desperately to log on to the restaurant's internet to post an update, respond to my guestbook friends, and answer some e-mails. But I was having a terrible time gaining access and kept timing out when I clicked on things. Finally I gave up on all that. But before logging off I checked the weather. From there the story goes, more or less, like this...
ME: "Soooo, who wants to hear the weather report for tomorrow?" They all did, of course, though I made them guess what they thought first. Of course no one guessed 90 degree temps and 20-30 mile an hour headwinds. This on what some say is the hardest day of the coast to coast trip, with 87 miles in the middle of nowhere with no services, water, etc
We all paused to digest the implications, lost in our own private hell of the agony those conditions could bring...
Me: "Maybe we should start at 4 or 5:00am?" To which there were some nods.
Steve: "Maybe we should ride 30 or so miles of it tonight, when it's cool and before the winds start. We could camp out in the desert, get up the next morning early and finish the ride."
Tylor: "Good idea." You see, Steve and Tylor usually camp someplace out of town anyway, so it was in the range of normal for them. The rest of us paused
Me: "I'm in." They all looked at me, I think they though I was the last one who would do something like that. But the thought of those weather conditions, on a day I was already leery of, made sense.
Fred and Isaiah were also in and after some time and convincing we got Rocky to agree too..
From there it was like a scene from the TV show "M*A*S*H" when the camp had to "bug out." Instantly we were up (the waitress literally shaking her head saying, "you guys are crazy") and out to the back where our camp was set up. Within 20 minutes we were packed and ready to go, with 1.5 days worth of water and food strapped to, and stuffed into, every nook and cranny of our bags.
At 8:30pm, with headlights and tail lights blazing, we were off...
I don't know why they call highway 50 the loneliest road in the world, because the road from Baker, NV to Milford, UT is MUCH more "lonely." We rode 23 miles last night and not ONE car passed us. Naturally we stopped for pictures where necessary, namely, the Nevada/Utah border.
It was cool and there was no wind--perfect. In fact we even had a few raindrops for a time. We stopped once for a snack but otherwise (aside from occasional pictures and, eeer, "natural breaks") pedaled away. Since there was no traffic we rode on both sides of the road. The only ones who saw us were cows and we were not even sure about them?
I think it was around 11:00ish Utah time (we lost an hour) when we finally scouted a "campsite" down a dirt road off the "main road." All but Rocky slept on the ground (well, sleeping pad, etc, Rocky Set up his tent) and after little time at all, we crawled in our sleeping bags.
...aside from one car that passed about a half hour after we reached camp (we were hidden by a small rise so they didn't see us) no other cars came by. The stars were amazing! I stayed up a while just to take it all in...
...we got up around 5:30 and 30 minutes later were back on the bike. We were all SOO happy we rode 23 miles the night before because the winds were howling, mostly head and cross winds, and we had 2 BIG climbs to tackle. I (of course) lagged on the uphills and was the last one up the hills but all the guys waited for me at the top, and somewhere around 2:00pm we rolled in to town, exhausted, where we stopped at a little restaurant and inhaled our meals.
I'm not saying I'm going to make a habit of night touring or stealth camping in the middle of the desert, but it was indeed a grade adventure and I had a marvelous time!
Right now the guys are out having a beer and I'll join them later for a bite to eat. Fred and I got a hotel room but I think the others are going to stealth camp again. But the wind is howling so no thanks on that, not when there is a warm shower and a soft bed to be had! Tomorrow we will likely ride together for a while and then our groups will go our separate ways. It's likely we won't see each other again but it will be an experience that we will all carry with us and remember.
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Today's ride: 82 miles (132 km)
Total: 926 miles (1,490 km)
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